This October at The Fintech Times we are championing the fantastic females in the fintech industry. Around 30% of the fintech workforce are women, and we want to spotlight those who have not only made it to the top, but those who have overcome hurdles, bulldozing a path for the women to follow.
Here we hear from Vivienne Hsu, Ximena Aleman, Nabilah Hussain and Marion Leslie as they share with us their greatest achievement.
Vivienne Hsu, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer at Sokin
“I am extremely proud of the somewhat meteoric career trajectory I have experienced – especially being a female, under-40 and a minority in an industry which is known to be heavily favoured towards men. I was one of the youngest MDs ever appointed at the consultancy I worked for before Sokin, and then moved to a C-Suite position shortly afterwards.
“I am also proud to be seen as a person others can trust and feel comfortable approaching for guidance. It isn’t in my nature to turn people away and I will always make the time to talk and understand those around me. I strongly believe in unity and supporting the people you’re with, no matter gender, age, ethnicity, or seniority. Listening to others share their life experiences – in both personal and professional circumstances – is a privilege.
“I believe some of our greatest achievements happen away from the office, and can be made up of the smaller, but equally important, snapshots of our personal lives. However, maybe we forget to celebrate these in the same way we do our professional milestones.”
Ximena Aleman, Cofounder & Co CEO at Prometeo
“What we have done so far with Prometeo is no doubt one of my greatest accomplishments. I was lucky to meet the group of friends with whom I would found my first fintech startup. We started in 2015 with a payment wallet. After a couple of years, we decided to pivot and take advantage of the new open banking trends and the technology we had built previously, and that’s how Prometeo started developing APIs. Since then our company has grown tremendously and together with my co-founders Rodrigo and Eduardo we work very hard to grow our network and our technology aligned to international security standards.
“I wouldn’t have been able to build Prometeo without them, they both have helped me improve myself in ways I could never have imagined. They have supported my growth and I have supported theirs. This has allowed us—as a team—to surpass our personal limitations and achieve not only personal success, but success as a startup as well.”
Nabilah Hussain, Head of Financial Crime at 3S Money
“Whilst I’m proud of many of my personal and professional accomplishments, my greatest one would have to be finding my niche amongst all the roles I’ve worked in throughout my career to date.
“Like many graduates, I came out of university with a Mathematics degree, having little direction and guidance as to how and where I would progress my career.
“The biggest challenge I faced during this time was honing in on my interests and skill set to establish where I was best suited in terms of industry and role. It was always imperative to me that I pursue my passions and find a career that I both enjoyed and that challenged me to always learn and grow.”
“I fell into finance, and thereby FinTech, almost by accident – walking past a high-street bank, I saw a job advert, applied, got the role and progressed from there. Finding my niche in compliance early on in my career really helped me to focus and excel.”
Marion Leslie, Head of financial information at SIX group
“Understanding what success looks like for you is step one. It is different for everyone and will change over the course of your life and your career. Being honest with ourselves is important – if we are lucky enough to have choice in who we work for and what we do, being comfortable with the choices made, and the compromises that come with that, is key.
“For me, achievement is the day-to-day wins (“what went well today?”) within the context of the answer to the overall question “am I happy?” A sense of perspective matters too – no obituary ever commented on whether the email got done.
“Fundamentally, I feel incredibly lucky to be where I am – and that is the achievement. I studied languages at school, purely because I liked them, but they have enabled me to have a rich and interesting international career, working with fascinating people, and now living in Switzerland. I have two teenage children who are still speaking to me! I have had some wonderful career experiences – starting as a data analyst and ending up running significant global data businesses, living in India for 4 years and building an operation from scratch, winning external recognition awards and leading through my executive board and non-executive board director roles are all things I am proud of. Achieving the perfect balance between home and work doesn’t happen each day, but I really try to think about what good looks like, both professionally and personally, for the current moment.”
